South Korea's defense minister made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan to boost morale for the country's troops stationed there, ministry officials said Tuesday.
Making his first trip to Afghanistan, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young met with some 230 South Korean soldiers currently stationed at the U.S. air base in Bagram, north of the Afghan capital of Kabul, to guard the nation's civilian aid workers in the war-torn country, the ministry said in a statement.
During the visit over the weekend, Kim also held separate meetings with Afghan defense chief Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak and Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, the statement said.
They exchanged views on security conditions in Afghanistan and countermeasures against threats by assailants, according to the statement.
The South Korean reconstruction team officially launched its mission last month with 49 civilian workers and eight police officers in the northern Afghan province of Parwan. If the team is expanded in stages to full scale later this year, it will be comprised of 100 reconstruction workers and 40 police officers.
Afghanistan was the first leg of Kim's seven-day trip that started Saturday.
On Monday, Kim traveled to Oman, where the South Korea's anti-piracy unit operating off the Somali coast is stationed.
In Oman, Kim met with his counterpart Sayyid Badr Bin Saud Al-Busaidi and discussed ways to better support the South Korean unit, which has carried out its mission as part of U.S.-led multinational anti-piracy forces since March of last year.
Kim flew to Indonesia on Tuesday and held talks with Jakarta's Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro to enhance military cooperation between the two nations, the statement said.
Kim is scheduled to return home Thursday.